live, but maybe not so strong...

Ok, well here is is, cancer grrl's livestrong challenge race report.

Initially, I must tell you that the 5K portion of this festival of athletic events ranks at the very bottom in terms of mileage, considering the challenge offers bike rides of 100, 70 and 40 miles, and a 10K run...

...And then there is the 5K run (or walk, because the walkers were on the same out and back 5K route)...





HOWEVER, and it is a big however, That eponymous Armstrong Man himself ran the 5K event, lest we be seen as a field of couchified slackers. He did manage to beat me, but the BF was neck to neck with him for a brief instant...the only thing was, the BF was on the beginning leg of the out and back run and That Armstrong Man was on the ending leg...whoops, two ships en passant....).

Secondly, and I must kvetch about this, as any good New Yorker would: they started the damned events at the damned crack of sparrow fart...7:30 a.m.. Helluva uncivilized time for a race, but then, that's Texas, as any good Texan can tell u. And since I qualify as both, I may be listened to with some authority.

Thirdly, the race was run in the boonies, and contained some rather unexpected, and, dare I say it, unwelcome, HILLS.

That said, here was my race:
I started out thinking I would pace slowly, but was soon passing people left and right. Why? Because it wasn't crowded enough for me to know enough to hold back and cruise for the first part, and I'm such a neophyte I don't know how how to pace myself BY myself. So I was going at a fair clip, for cancer grrl anyway. Then, i, rather foolishly, bounded up the first loooooong hill in a fit of showoffyness.

As I hit the halfway mark, I knew I was in trouble. I was freakin tired already. That was when The Child started passing me. The Child was about 8 yrs old, small and fast, with a ridiculous amount of energy. I'd catch up to him, and, frightened lest some old bald witch beat him, he'd take off sprinting. I'd plod, and catch up to him again, and the same thing happened over and over.

At the halfway mark, I also, in a rather desperate show of "i'm a real runner, not the crippled toxin surfer you see before you" grabbed a cup of Powerade, and, in trying to drink it, promptly and spastically upended it all over my white, clean, livestrong shirt. At least it was pink, and matched my Komen cap.

Coming back up the second half of the course I was met with not one, not two, but THREE freakin long hills. Here is where I started the cycle of walk 20 seconds, run up a hill, walk 20 seconds, run up a hill...I walked THREE times, sad to say. Here is where The Child finally bid me adieu and sailed on home as I ate his dust. Here is where I, being cheered on by some walkers who were coming down the first half, had to stop for a walk break right in front of them, mid cheer. Oh me, the humiliation.

Nonetheless, i finally managed to get it together and run home. AND I made better time than at Komen, even with the walks. (I ran about 27:38. I say about because I decided not to do the chip and I timed myself, because i didn't want the "pressure" of a chip...what EVAH). AND I did seem to be, oddly enough, somewhat towards the front of the field. But, since The Child was ahead of me, you probably have an idea of what the field was like...

But, i was beat. And at least I know now what it's like to run a 5K without thousands of people bobbing around you, giving you energy. And, at least I know I've got nowhere to go but up....